Mississippi Freedom: Summer, 1964: "Representation and the Right to Participate"

In this section from Voices of Freedom, the author discusses the Mississippi Freedom Summer project of 1964, especially civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer's role in the work of the initiative. Hamer grew up in a family of sharecroppers in Montgomery County, Mississippi; she then grew up to become an influential leader within the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She worked during the time of controversial voter registration drives, which some white tried to halt by imposing Constitutional interpretation tests on African-American voters. Hamer traveled with other SNCC members Jim Forman, Ruby Doris Robinson, Julian Bond, and John Lewis to the Republic of Guinea. Hamer reacted emotionally when Guinea's President Sekou Toure arranged to meet the activists; she expressed great gratitude for his words of support for the civil rights cause.

Additional information

Document Description: three-page photocopy of document; located in PLT Archive folder "Hamer materials"; Notations (written on photocopy): from Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950's through the 1980's, Henry Hampton & Steve Fayer with Sarah Flynn, Bantam: New York, 1990.

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